It was under these premises that a northern confederacy was proposed and then Vice President Aaron Burr was offered the presidency of the new confederacy if he could persuade New York to secede. Alexander Hamilton was very vocal about his opposition to this plan and was able to stop the secession, but lost his life during a duel with Aaron Burr over the ordeal. The seeds of dissention are growing though it is the north that is unhappy with their political standing. Spain disputed the sale and the boundaries of the land. The Adams-Onis Treaty in 1819 finally settled the specifics of Texas as being the land south and east of the Red River, the Sabine River, the Arkansas River and the 42nd parallel. This area would remain a Spanish Colony. (2)
The Missouri compromise is one of many compromises that ultimately failed in American History. In 1818 the Missouri territory had enough people to warrant statehood. The bill was presented to congress and passed through the House but failed in the senate in 1819. In 1820 a bill allowing Maine to become a state also passed the House. The problem lies in that Alabama had just joined the union in 1819 and brought a balance to the free vs. slave state representation in the Senate. The speaker of the House, Henry Clay, is regarded as the author of the compromise that allowed Missouri to join as a slave state and Maine to join as a free state. This satisfied the balance in the Senate. The compromise also declared that any other lands gained by the Louisiana Purchase to the north of 36°30'N lat. to be slave free. This line of demarcation only applied to the lands acquired in the Louisiana Purchase, thereby dooming it in the future balances. (3) These balances would be tested with the annexation of Texas and the war with Mexico.
(19)
Cinco de Mayo 1821. Spain loses Mexico as a territory. This allows the new Mexican government to allow Americans to come into the Tejas region and settle it under the guidance of Stephen F Austin. The Mexican government did not allow slavery though. By the time of the Texas Revolution in 1836 some 5000 slaves resided in Tejas. By the time of Texas annexation in 1845 there were 30,000 slaves in the region. When civil war came some 182,566 slaves were present. That was over 30% of the population of the state of Texas. (13) As some of the farther north slaves ran away to Canada these slaves ran away to Mexico to be free. To help round up escaped slaves and battle the Indian troubles and small skirmishes with Mexico, and elite force was formed. The Texas Rangers still exist today, albeit in a different form of work. It was not until Juneteenth day, June 19, 1865, that the slaves were officially freed in Texas by the Union troops. The April 9, 1865 signing of the end of war did not get out to all of the troops and the last land battle was fought in Texas at the Palmitto Ranch in May of 1865 with the Confederate and Texas troops being the victors.
General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna cut off immigration by Americans into the Tejas territory in 1830. Even though Santa Anna refused to make Tejas a Mexican state, he presented a ratified constitution abolishing slavery in all of Mexico and its territories in 1835. This nullified the Constitution of 1824, hence the 1824 on the flags displayed at the Battle of the Alamo. The 1824 constitution recognized each state as a free and sovereign state. This is what the Tejans had based their laws and future on. (1) Angered by their lack of representation and decisions that affected them the Texans cried foul at this. In November of this year General Sam Houston, former Governor of Tennessee and future President of Texas, was elected Commander in Chief of the Texas Army for a revolution with Mexico. This is starting to sound very familiar.
On March 2, 1836 after a few battles with Mexico, the Texans adopted a declaration of Independence from Mexico. In the meantime, 183 to 250 men and a few women were holed up in a small mission named Alamo in Bexar which is now San Antonio. Outside the mission were around 6000 Mexican troops even though only 1,500 or so were used in the 13 day stand-off and final assault. On Mar 6, 1836 Santa Anna made his final assault killing everyone inside. Three weeks later on March 27, 300 unarmed Texans were massacred at Goliad as traitors to Mexico. (1) The Texan army at one time amassed 2,000 soldiers, but the loss of life at the Alamo, and Goliad and a battle at Matamoras decreased that number to just around 1,000.
San Jacinto lies near present day Houston, which is appropriately named for General, President, Governor, and Statesman Sam Houston. And on this ground the battle was one for Texan independence. The Texans had accumulated 910 men to go up against the Mexican army of around 725. (11) On April 12 preparations were made to start moving cargo across the Brazos River to meet the Mexican troops. On the morning of April 20, Sam Houston and his troops went over Lynch’s ferry to the north and captured a boat laden with supplies for the Mexican army. The next morning the Texans discovered that the Mexican Army had received reinforcements to the tune of 540 more men sometime during the night from across Vince’s Bridge. Sam Houston ordered that bridge destroyed as well as Lynch’s ferry. It was to be a fight to the death for both sides. The bayous had swelled with the April rains and were impassable with out a bridge or ferry.
Santa Anna expected an attack that night and ordered his troops to be prepared. At about noon on April 21, Sam Houston and his war council were in discussion as to attack or wait to be attacked. The final vote was to attack. Santa Anna’s troops were exhausted from marching the day prior and being up all night preparing for the attack. Santa Anna again figured for a night time attack. At 3:30 PM during the traditional siesta time the Texans attacked and overwhelmed the larger and better equipped Mexican army in a total of 18 minutes. The attack by the Texans was brutal and unmerciful. Mexicans were killed trying to escape by swimming across the bayous screaming “Me no Alamo, Me no Goliad”. “Remember the Alamo” and “Remember Goliad” were the battle cries that spurred them on to kill 630 and wound 208. The rest were taken prisoner along with Santa Anna. (11) More Mexicans had been killed here than all of the Texans combined in the previous battles. The Texas loss was totaled out at 9 soldiers dead with 30 or so wounded, including Sam Houston who was shot in the ankle.
The treaties of Velasco were signed by Texan President David G Burnett and Mexican President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna on May 14, 1836. The treaties declared an end to the war and acknowledge the Mexican retreat. (15) Just as in the Korean War, a state of war existed after the cease fire and neither government really accepted the treaties. Peace with Mexico would not come until after the US war with Mexico in 1848. In the meantime the Texans had been rebuffed by the US in asking to become a state.
There was a hot debate going on in congress about bringing Texas into the Union. Of course it was going to be a slave state. They had almost fought to their deaths over that issue with Mexico. As large as the area was though, the northern states were vehemently opposed to annexation. In 1843 Santa Anna again was president of Mexico and vowed that an annexation of Texas would be an act of war against Mexico and he agreed to peace with Texas as long as she remained independent. (14)
On December 29th, 1845 during Presidents John Tyler’s last day in the White House, the president signed the Joint Resolution to Admit Texas as a State. (16) This settled the debate in congress but caused a problem with the Missouri compromise. The resolution would allow the state of Texas to split into an additional four states if the citizens assent to it. These states below the 36°30'N lat. would be slave states or free state depending on the voters. Any state created above the 36°30'N lat would be a free state no question about it. (16) This resolution did not give Texas the right to secede from the union if it so wished and it required that Texas keep its debt from its revolution. The US would not absorb that debt of around ten million dollars.
The debate was ended by the need to prepare for war with Mexico. True to his word Santa Anna attacked US troops that were stationed in what he felt was his land, the Rio Grande Valley. The Rio Grande River was the southwest border recognized by Texas and the US while the Nueces River to the east was where Mexico said its border was. (7) On May 13, 1846 the US Congress declared war on Mexico. In august of 1847 General Winfield Scott captured Mexico City and did not leave until the US congress ratified the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo on March 10, 1848. (4) The treaty was signed on February 2, 1848. The treaty forced Mexico to cede 55% of its territory. (7) This treaty gave the US the states of California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and parts of Colorado, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming. A total of 525,000 square miles or 336 million acres for 15 million dollars. This was about 4.5 cents per acre.
The compromise of 1850 helped keep the union together for 10 more years. Senator John Bell affirmed that the general consensus of the slave states in the south was that the annexation of Texas was a good thing as it would give more power to those states ideals. Daniel Webster spoke of the profitable cultivation of cotton giving the south its desire for improvement and accumulation. This would spur on the slave trade and promote it he said.
(8)
Senator Thomas Benton’s proposal on January 16th was to:
“retire the western limit of Texas to the parallel of 102 degrees of west longitude, and the northern boundary "from the frozen region of 42 to the genial clime of 34," two and one-half degrees south of the Missouri compromise line, ceding to the United State all the territory exterior to these limits. The senator said that the territory which Texas claimed at the time of her admission into the Union was too large. "She covers sixteen degrees of latitude, and fourteen degrees of longitude. She extends from 26 to 42 degrees of north latitude, and from 96 to 110 west longitude; that is to say, from four degree south of New Orleans to near four degrees north of St. Louis, and from the longitude of Western Missouri to the summit of the Rocky Mountains. Her southeast corner is in the mouth of the Rio Grande—region of perpetual flowers; her northwest corner is near the South Pass in the Rocky Mountains—region of eternal snow." (12)
Benton’s plan would take from Texas her northern most and western boundaries while dividing her in half of what remains.
(8)
Senator John Bell proposed on February 28, 1850 that:
“with the assent of Texas, to restrict her limits within the territory lying east of the Trinity and south of Red River, to provide for a new state on the west, and extending north to the 34th degree of north latitude, and to accept a cession from the State of all the unappropriated domain west of the Colorado, and extending north to the 42d parallel. Provision was made for the prospective admission of another state to be carved out of the unappropriated domain west of the Colorado and south of the 34th parallel, which would embrace a part of the present limits of New Mexico, while the territory north of the line, containing all of the Panhandle, was to be incorporated with the territory of New Mexico.” (12)
This would have taken the northern and western territory from Texas but also split the state into thirds.
(8)
Senator Henry Clay’s proposal on April 17th was much like Bell’s and Benton’s in that it reduced the size of the state in equal ways; it just did not cut the remaining territory in half.
Senator James Pearce’s plan on August 5th:
“Presented a bill, unconnected with any other subject, for the establishment of the northern and western boundary of the State, and the relinquishment of the territory claimed by her, exterior to the defined limits. It provided that the boundary on the north should begin where the meridian of 100° west is intersected by the parallel of 36° 30’ north latitude, and run thence west to he 103d meridian; thence south to the 32d degree of north latitude; thence on that parallel to the Rio Bravo; and thence down the channel of that river to the Gulf of Mexico. In consideration of the reduction of boundaries, the cession of territory, and the relinquishment of claim, Texas was to receive ten millions of dollars.” (12)
Pearce’s plan was viewed as the most amicable for all involved, as it gave Texas the most land of any proposal and allowed New Mexico to stay in one piece. The compromise also gave Texas 10 million dollars for her loss of land and to help repay her debts.
So California was admitted as a free state, while the new territories of New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona would be admitted and their slave decisions approved by voters a new idea called popular sovereignty. The north saw this as a victory while the south surely did not. To appease the southern senators the Fugitive Slave Act was also passed as a measure. This act invariably stripped the rights from any black person in the country. A citizen was required to assist any federal marshals or their deputy in the apprehension of any “escaped slave”. By this measure any escaped slave was a black person still breathing. They slave no longer had a right to a jury trial, and his testimony was not admissible in court instead he was judged by an individual that received 5 dollars if he was found innocent and set free, or 10 dollars if he was found guilty and sent with the claimant. (9) During the years following this some 20,000 slaves escaped to Canada using the Underground Railroad. The northerners were appalled and it was of no conciliation that the slave trade would finally be abolished in the nation’s capital.
The Kansas-Nebraska act became law on May 30, 1854. The territories of Kansas and Nebraska were such that they were ready fro statehood. The problem lies in that the south is still mad about the Compromise of 1850. They want another slave state. The north citing the Missouri compromise and that neither of these future states by right should be slave states. But the southerners backed Stephen A Douglas; chairman of the Senate Committee on Territories as well did President Franklin Pierce, a northerner who supported slavery. Douglas’ plan was to make two states out of the one territory Kansas and Nebraska, Kansas being slave, if popular sovereignty so dictated and Nebraska being a free state. (5) Kansas being the southernmost would be decided by its constituents. Southerners rushed and paid people to “live” in Kansas so that the state would be voted as slave. Emigrant aid societies popped up in the north and south to help the new emigrants in setting up towns. Towns that were skewed to the political needs of those paying the bill that is. A small civil war erupted and gave the term “Bleeding Kansas” between northerners and southerners. The Democratic Party seemed so fracture that it may not heal. The Republican Party was a new party that was opposed to the bill. Ultimately Kansas would be admitted to the union as a free state in 1861 after a new antislavery constitution was drawn up. The south had had it by this time and on December 20, 1860 South Carolina declared its secession from the union citing the north’s nullification of the Fugitive Slave Act as one of its reasons.
The compromises of 1820 and 1850 were effectively dismantled and the Fugitive slave laws were stronger than ever. The Kansa-Nebraska Act hammered the nail in the coffin of the United States as it was known. What if? Texas had stayed a Mexican territory, remained independent, been cut up more and offered some as a free state?
Works Cited
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- Williams, John H. Sam Houston: A Biography of the Father of Texas. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993. 103-158
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